Aggreko’s flexible cooling helps keep vegetables fresh through summer

Reynolds, a leading supplier of fresh fruit and vegetables, has partnered with temperature control and mobile power specialist Aggreko to provide additional cooling capacity for its vegetable packing lines during the warmer summer months.

Because temperature integrity is critical to Reynolds they wanted a cooling package capable of delivering a stable 4-5 °C across one of their packing lines – to help maximise the freshness of their produce. At the same time it was important to ensure valuable space within the chill store was kept free for product storage.

Aggreko’s engineers designed a flexible and compact cooling package consisting of three low-temperature air handlers inside the chill store. These were served by a 400 kW chiller, with a generator package for power.

To prevent taking up valuable floor space, Aggreko recommended Reynolds fit a racking system on which the air handlers were mounted.

Engineers configured the air handler units to ensure air throw targeted the packing, so that cooling was targeted on the vegetables rather than wasted on the surrounding warehouse space. This efficient process meant the produce was reliably chilled to the desired temperature at all times.

Aggreko installed the semi-permanent package in spring, with the flexibility to turn it on and off as required, in line with the ambient temperature. Throughout the warmer summer months the chilling system was active. It then acted as a back-up over the colder winter period, ensuring Reynolds had back-up cooling capacity on-site to deliver the best possible cooling redundancy available.

Phil Robinson, QHSE Manager at Reynolds, said:

The specialist Aggreko team had the technical know-how to design and implement a targeted and compact cooling package that was highly effective in delivering the stable chilled temperature required by our vegetable packing lines.

Chris Smith, Head of Temperature Control, Aggreko UK added:

Our chiller and low temperature air handler package offered Reynolds a semi-permanent, but effective solution to their cooling needs. With the ability to turn the package on and off as needed, Reynolds had a cost-effective means of keeping the packing lines at the required temperature, ensuring their products could remain in optimum condition.